Due to the non-biodegradable nature of heavy metals and the serious health effects of heavy metal contamination, continuous monitoring of pollution levels at different locations of crucial water areas is of foremost importance.
Conventional water quality monitoring is typically carried out by first collecting water samples from several fixed or random sites according to the types of pollution problems that may be encountered, after which packaged samples are transported to localized laboratories. Thereafter, comprehensive experiments are performed by specialists for the purpose of providing detailed information on overall water quality of a particular region.
One drawback of conventional water contamination surveillance is potential distortion of test results as unpredictable physical, chemical and/or biological reactions may occur in the samples during the significant lapse of time from sample collection to testing.
Furthermore, water specimen collection is time consuming and labour intensive because both time and labour are required to gather sufficient samples at various depths and from numerous waterways.
Another drawback of conventional water pollution monitoring is the limited number of water testing facilities due to the significant equipment and labour cost of providing and operating a water testing facility.
It is therefore desirable to provide a miniaturized, sensitive and disposable chemical sensor for on-site or in-situ heavy metal detection.